The game is rather battered, which is not
to say unloved. It arrived in the world battered, the photos on the box slightly
misjudged, the instructions printed in type that was almost too small, blotchy
and close-set to read. It’s been played a lot. It was your most expensive
purchase at the jumble sale, even eclipsing the Grange Hill paperbacks and
Gladys Knight and the Pips gatefold LP, and there was a look in the owner’s
eyes that almost made you think she would snatch it from your hands at the last
minute. But no.
Now you’re home, and it’s time
to play. First select your counter. Don’t argue for too long about this. Not
everyone can be Dayna; somebody will have to be Vila. One of the pieces is
missing – presumed eaten by cat – but you never know, it could come back at the
end of the series. You will probably choose to play as Vila.
Roll the dice. Move two spaces.
You have landed on an ‘ally’ square. This activates the ‘ally’ player. The
person who plays the ‘ally’ card must wear either the funny beard, the funny
wig or the funny tabard, or forfeit a round. This time they are wearing the
funny beard. (N.B. The ally, by default, is not allowed to finish the game.)
Now you need to know what sort
of an expert you will attempt to liberate in this game. This time around it’s
Belkov. He’s an expert on mining, electronics, and smug expressions. That means
the object of the game will be getting the felcron crystals. Tip them out of
their little bag.
Roll the dice. Move five
spaces. You have landed on a ‘villain’ square. Get out the ‘villain’ cards,
shuffle thoroughly and turn the top one face up. If the ‘villain’ deck has gone
missing from your copy of the game, don’t worry: it’s usually Servalan.
Roll the dice. Move one space.
You’ve landed on a teleport square. Players elect to teleport or not, except
for whoever is playing as Vila who has to move his piece wherever the others tell
them. Strategic: Avon normally only teleports down at this stage if there’s
someone involved who he wants to kill. (The exception being when Blake is the
ally.)
Gameplay continues in a vaguely
dramatic but generally pedestrian sort of way. This is the perfect sort of game
to enjoy with friends after a few drinks. If you were lucky, you’ll have seen
the Blake’s 7 Sodastream kit at a jumble sale, and you can knock back a bright
blue Servalan Special whilst awaiting your turn. Now and again, you will land
on a square adjacent to the crystals, but you will never land on the square
with the crystals on it, or whatever the objective is of the game. The game,
after all, is all about strategy and out-thinking your opponent: another reason
it’s good to play with friends who are as drunk and uninvolved as you are.
Play passes in order of
seniority from Avon down to Dayna. Vila doesn’t get a turn, but the person
playing as Vila is sometimes allowed to hold the dice and rattle it around in
his or her hands.
You have rolled a four, and
landed on a ‘Scorpio’ card. This means the Scorpio is in jeopardy. Pick from
the ‘jeopardy’ deck to see whether your solution means that contact is broken
off with the other players. Don’t worry if the ‘jeopardy’ deck has gone missing
in this board game’s long life: whatever you choose, you will always break off
contact with the other players.
At this point, the people
playing as Dayna and Avon should look at one another meaningfully and take a
drink. It’s in the rules if you can bear to look.
You have rolled a six! That
means that you gain a second ‘ally’ card. It must be a computer of some sort.
If it’s Orac, Servalan comes into play again. If it’s Slave, the person playing
as Tarrant must say something testy and Avon must roll his eyes. If it’s any
other computer, you can advance around the board.
To reach the final square, you
must sacrifice your ally. If your ally is a traitor, Servalan comes into play. In
this round, you sacrifice your computer ally and advance to the final square. You
must roll a six for every character before you can win, at which point you put
the Servalan card back in the pack and the crystals back in their little bag.
If you get the crystals, you lose. You now kick the board over in a drunken
rage, saying, what’s the point of games anyway, it’s all just a contrived way
of getting people to spend time together who have nothing in common and hate
each other’s guts but are united by the desire to gain some meaningless victory
as a symbol of defiance against a cruel, meaningless universe. That’s what it
says on the back of the box, in fact.
Before entering another round
of Blake’s 7, don’t forget to take
another drink…
You'll find 'Blake's Space Race' in the 1979 Blake's 7 Annual
Great! Didn't know about this game.
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